Monday, November 27, 2006

The Menorah Game, Reprinted

I just printed thirty spanking new copies of The Menorah Game, in time for your holiday shopping needs.

While waiting for a publisher to take up the game, my choice has always been to print it correctly myself, which would require making a few thousand copies of good quality for about $7 each, or reprint the mockups, of which I can print any number I want for about $7 each.

I went with the mockups again. What can I say? I'm just not ready to invest my own money or my friend's money in this until I have already produced a good selling game. It's fear, pure and simple. If someone wants to come to my rescue and take over, they are more than welcome; it's going to not have to depend on my initiative, which is limited to sending copies of the game to publishers.

For the reprint, I added little Hebrew letters to each tile so that those with color-blindness can more easily match up the candles they need to collect. I also added extra numbers to the game screens so that it is clearer that there are 4 of each gold candle and Greek soldier.

I printed them without the coins because the small coins made out of paper were simply useless. But despite printing only three board per game instead of four, it still cost me as much for each game. The price of printing went up that much.

It was $7.50 per mockup. Add a single page of rules, baggies, envelopes, and shipping cost - generally around $12 to $15 per game, depending on where you live.

I can tell you right now that anyone paying that much will be disappointed by the quality of the components - sorry - but the game is now thoroughly play-tested and quite good and endlessly replayable. It's my favorite auction game. If I do say so myself.

Seven of the reprints are already spoken for. That leaves another 23 for anyone interested in acquiring a copy or for me to give out as gifts.

One could ask the question: in all these years, only one game that has made it to fruition? And you call yourself a game designer? The truth is, I have been concentrating more on blogging than game design. I have started, but not completed, many other designs. And I have done a lot of variants for games, many of which are quite good. But, no, I can't really be called a game designer unless I am regularly sitting down to the business. I may as well be living in LA and call myself an actor.